AARP Urges Quick Implementation of Medicare Prescription Negotiations

En español | AARP joined Families USA and nearly 100 other organizations in writing to the country’s top health official urging him to “fully and quickly” implement a program to negotiate Medicare prescription drug prices, even as the program faces challenges from pharmaceutical companies.

The negotiations will help lower the high cost of lifesaving prescription medications for millions of older Americans, who are sometimes forced to choose between paying for prescriptions and buying food and other necessities, noted the Sept. 28 letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

“No one should be forced to choose between their health and financial security, and the Medicare drug negotiation program — if implemented fully — would help prevent those kinds of impossible choices,” the letter said.

AARP was instrumental in the passage of last year’s historic prescription drug law, which will allow Medicare for the first time to negotiate prices on prescription drugs to treat diabetes, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and more. And we’re fighting legal challenges brought by drug companies and business groups trying to derail the drug negotiation portion of the law.

“Fully and quickly implementing the Medicare negotiation program is critical to making drug prices affordable for millions of people in America,” the letter to HHS said. “We support HHS in its efforts to ensure that it is implemented as intended and to reach the lowest possible price, as the law instructs.”

Read the letter and learn more about how AARP is fighting for lower prescription drug prices.